Q & A – part 3

If you’re catching up, read Q& A part 1 and part 2.

Today is our first and last work day of the week – we’re going to Florida tomorrow!  I am excited, anxious, and giddy all at the same time.  Excited because it is going to be our first vacation with the baby!  Anxious for our first flights with the baby.  Giddy for the warm weather!  No worries – I’m bringing the computer and although I do not promise to blog daily, I do promise to keep up!  In return for your patience, you get to look forward to posts about flying with a 1 year old, packing for a long trip away from home, and a ton of pictures of our little bugget at the beach.

Now, back to the subject at hand: your questions!

Happiness Is… says

“If you could have dinner with 3 dead people, who would they be? Alive?
If you were on an island and could only bring 3 things, what would they be?
Favorite quote?
All time favorite book?
Must-read parenting book (if you have one)?”

Ashley-

You’re single handedly trying to keep my creative juices floating, aren’t ya  Maybe we should add a weekly spot of “Ashley’s question of the day” – you in?

Ok, dinner – my grandmother, my grandfather (both on my mom’s side) and my uncle (dad’s brother); I would love to have dinner with some of my favorite bloggers!  Katie from Marriage Confessions, Jenna from Jenna’s Journey, and Jen from Life in the Green House.  Honestly, any of my top 25 favorite bloggers would make my day (Happiness is is definitely in that top 25 list!)

Favorite quote: “”I love being married. It’s so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” – Rita Rudner

All time favorite book – omg, I don’t think I can name one.  I guess I’ll say Youth in Revolt.   How about yours?

Must-read parenting book: Caring for your baby and young child, birth to age 5 by Steven Shelov, Robert Hannemann.  I swear, if there is a book that comes closest to being a baby manual, this is it.

Carrie T says “What was your favorite toy as a child?
What kind of music do you listen too? Favorite artist?
Favorite actor/actress?
When will spring get here? “

Carrie-

Between you and Ashley, I’ll never run out of topics.

My favorite toy was a Barbie.  My dad brought one over from the U.S. when I was a kid (living in Russia) and I was obsessed!  I also had a ton of stuffed animals that I accumulated as gifts from my parents over the years.

I listen to a pretty wide variety of music, but my favorite is Emo.  I love so manu artists, but right now one of my favorite ones is Blue October.

Favorite actor – Nicholas Cage, favorite actress – Rachel McAdams.  (ps- I’m DYING to see The Vow, but that probably won’t happen until it’s out on video).

Spring will hopefully be here soon!

Stephanie says “I was wondering how you started peanut on solids? What part of the day did you have her try stuff and after that was she eating 3 meals or how long did it take to get to that?”

Stephanie-

I’m going to give you a quick overview, but feel free to check out these posts:

Sample meal plan for a 1 year old

Starting Puffs

Baby food 6-8 months

Baby food – yams

Starting solids

We started Peanut on cereal around 4 months but it didn’t really take until 4.5-5 months.  Peanut has always absolutely loved food- she’s a funny kid like that.  In fact, I still don’t understand how she is as small as she is since she is such a good eater!  Once Peanut took to cereal, we started adding some home made apple sauce (steamed apples, mashed).  From here, things got creative – I started making all sorts of baby food from pears to peaches to peas to sweet potato.  Peanut gobbled them all up!

We started by introducing Peanut to some food around dinner time.  Next we added another meal at daycare (around lunch time).  I think that she was on 3 meals around 8-9 months od age, which is also around the time that she started finger foods.  I can’t say that she eats a full meal at every single meal, but we always sit her down in her high chair around the same time and let her eat something.  Right now she is eating 3 meals (breakfast around 8:30am, lunch around 1pm, and dinner around 6pm) and one snack around 3pm.